The Democratic Republic of Congo: Understanding the Conflict

civil war in the DRC

This year in school, I’m taking a really amazing English elective called Gender, Culture, Power (SURPRISE! It’s taught by the same awesome teacher who handed me Jessica Valenti’s Full Frontal Feminism). Basically, some of the coolest, smartest, classiest girls (and one brave guy) get together almost every day to discuss gender…culture…and power. It’s bliss. And while we’ve had our fun dissecting everything from KFC advertisements to the Handmaid’s Tale thus far, we just embarked on a far more serious, yet completely enthralling, topic: the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

My class researched the conflict, and here’s a rundown of what we found:

History:In 1960, the DRC became independent of Belgium, which had colonized the African country in 1877. Soon after, violence …